Kanona

This is Lincoln. Today I went with one of the local youth pastors, Noel, on his weekly trip to some of the outlying villages. Today we visited Kanona. Every wednesday he rotates between Kanona and Freedom Park. He always brings a truck load of food to the local clinic there run by the Catholics. We always leave some food at the clinic to be distributed by the workers and then we take some of it and go with some of the caregivers to their patients houses to visit them, deliver the food, and pray with them. This particular clinic that we were at today only deals with HIV patients. We loaded 7 of us into a tiny pickup (the size of a "brat") and went out into the village to visit the people like we did in Freedom Park a few weeks ago. The first lady was a "magogo" (granny) lying on the dirt living room floor of her daughters rusted tin shack. She had some sort of infection on her ankle that caused her extreme pain and kept her from moving at all. We encouraged her to get into town to see a doctor because the infection is only going to get worse and is going to continue moving through her leg and body. We prayed with her and left her a sack of food. She only spoke Tswana and was calling Noel "boss." This is a term left over from the apartheid days when the blacks would call the whites "boss." I've been called that several times and it always makes me uncomfortable because of the racial tension that is behind it. I want to say "Not boss, call me friend." I'm still learning how to negotiate the racial tension. There is more emotion behind it than I can glean from a history book, so I'm trying to figure it all out. We visited another "magogo" who was also in very bad condition. I've noticed a trend that many times the patient does not really understand their illness. We asked her what the doctor told her and she said the dr. didn't say anything. We ask "You've been to the dr. and he doesn't say anything, what does he say?" She replies, "He just gave me this medication and didn't say anything." So, sadly, even the ones that receive some medical attention aren't receiving very good attention. I don't think that this is necessarily a problem with the doctors skill, but rather a problem of translating complex multiple medical issues into another language and culture. It was a good experience today visiting these people. I had a good time with Noel, we have a lot in common. He's about my age with kids about the same age as ours. He used to work in nature conservation in the game reserves and was telling me some interesting stories about tracking animals in the bush. I look forward to spending more time in ministry with him.